Borouge, a joint-venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company , one of the world’s major oil companies, and Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solution, is expanding its marketing, sales and innovation capabilities in Guangzhou and Shanghai, China.

Borouge, a leading provider of innovative value creating plastics solutions, announces the incorporation of Borouge Sales and Marketing (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd. The inauguration of the new company, held at the Shangri-La Hotel on January 6, 2010, was attended its customers, senior government officials from the Guangzhou Municipal Government and the United Arab Emirates as well as Members of the Boards of Borouge.

- With the relative strength of the Chinese economy, China will very soon become the largest consumption market for polyolefins globally - said Rashed Saud Al Shamsi, Chairman of the Board of Borouge Pte, Borouge’s Marketing Company, at the inauguration. - As such we will continue to expand our investments in China and support the growth of the market. The establishment of a sales and marketing company in Guangzhou is the next phase of our expansion and it reflects our ongoing commitment to China.

Supported by a Guangzhou based logistics hub, fully operational in mid- 2010 and capable of supplying approximately 246,000 tons of valueadded polyethylene and polypropylene annually to its customers in the region , the new company will optimise the service that Borouge provides and further develop the company’s growth in the region.

- We are already present in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and now with a Company in Guangzhou, we will be better poised to service the southern Chinese market - explains William Yau, Chief Executive Officer of Borouge Pte. - Together with our two new logistics hubs and manufacturing facilities in China, we are fast becoming a recognised supplier in the packaging and automotive markets in addition to our strong position in the infrastructure markets.

Plastics solutions Application Centre in Shanghai
In line with its commitment to delivering innovative, value creating plastics solutions to its customers, Borouge announces that it will invest in building up its innovation capability in China with the establishment of an Application Centre at its manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China. Planned for the end of 2010, the new Centre will enhance Borouge’s ability to execute research and development and conduct product performance reviews in close proximity to its customers.

- We are expanding our product development capability to ensure that we can develop tailored-application solutions for our customers in China – says Borouge’s Innovation Centre Manager Petri Lehmus. – The Application Centre will mainly focus on automotive and appliance applications. Together with the Innovation Centre we are building in Abu Dhabi and the significant innovation capability of Borealis in Europe, we aim to offer our customers the opportunity to provide truly differentiated plastics to the market.

In addition to these investments Borouge will further develop its technical expertise and technical service capability for its customers in China. - We are committed to our mission ‘Value Creation through Innovation’ and will continue to invest in speeding up the innovation process and providing optimum solutions to our customers,” reinforces Borouge Pte CEO William Yau. - With our compounding plant and logistics hubs in China also coming on stream in 2010, this will be an important year for growing our partnerships throughout the plastics value chain.

As a leading provider of innovative plastic solutions in the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging markets, Borouge is tripling the capacity of its plant in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2010 to 2 million tons per year and adding polypropylene to its manufacturing portfolio. The new compounding manufacturing unit in Shanghai will supply up to 50,000 of compounded resins annually to Borouge’s automotive and appliances customers in China.

Besides enhancing its Borstar® technology-based polypropylene and polyethylene offer in 2010, Borouge has initiated a further expansion of its plant in Abu Dhabi to increase the total capacity to 4.5 million tons per year. This major expansion, to be completed at the end of 2013, will include the production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) production capacity to meet the specific needs of the rapidly growing wire and cable infrastructure market.